Lucky four leaf clovers

[science_spot]

Luck is a belief that good or bad fortune can come completely by chance.  Most scientists would agree there is no room for luck in science, since everything happens for a reason, whether or not we can identify that reason and describe it using scientific knowledge.  If only it were that simple.  The picture below is in the public domain (from Wikipedia).  This is a re-post from last August.

 

 

Even as a scientist, I still believe in my religion and also in karma and luck.  Not everything can be described scientifically, but I hold strong in the idea that "just because we don't understand it, doesn't mean it isn't happening".  For me, luck falls into that category.

  

Is finding a four leaf clover lucky?  I don't know, but from a statistical standpoint, it is certainly unusal (in the wild).  Rarer still is the five leaf clover.  There are some companies that cultivate (genetically modified) clovers with four and five leaves in order to sell them.  Also, there are other plants, outside of the clover family, that bear a resemblance and always have four leaves, such as the Iron Cross and the Water Clover (not a true clover).

Most consider true four leaf clovers to be from only the species trifolium repens (white clover).  I just learned that this plant prefers to grow on clay, which is a major component of the soil in my town.  White clover is very popular here, and it is among my favorite native plants growing on my lawn.  I LOVE those little white flowers!  Turns out, the deer and bunnies love it too.

It's not completely clear how wild four leaf clovers come about.  Here is a topic that scientists just haven't put the effort into understanding, leaving us with educated guesses.  It is know that they are often found in patches, so if you find one, keep looking, because there could be many others in the same area.  My father-in-law has a nice patch of them in his backyard, which makes it easy for the kids to find them!  The one hanging in my cube here at work is from that patch.  Knowing they often appear in groups, I think it lends some weight to the idea that a recessive gene can cause the growth of the extra leaf.

Other ways the extra leaf could come about include new mutations in a specific plant, which could be caused by environmental stimuli (soil composition or pH, or pesticide use), or by multiple genes acting together to change the gene expression in the plant, leading to extra leaf growth.  It is likely that there is more than one stimuli or genetic path to becoming a four leaf clover, and the cultivaters have shown that genetic engineering is among them. 

Doesn't cultivating them or purchasing them on a website take all the fun out of it?  Laying in the grass, in the summer sun, searching through a bed of clover with grandpa gets my vote :)

  

Tonya

AKA sunmoonstars

The Science Spot

[auroragold]

Mar. 17, 2010 at 7:10 AM

Doesn't cultivating them or purchasing them on a website take all the fun out of it?  Laying in the grass, in the summer sun, searching through a bed of clover with grandpa gets my vote :)

 

I'm with you on that count!

[Momforhealth]

Mar. 17, 2010 at 9:05 AM

My hubby can find them in seconds.  Every patch has more than one he insists.

[arthistmom]

Mar. 17, 2010 at 1:11 PM

This reminds me of the recent book by Greg Foley from his Bear series called Good Luck, Bear. I think Abby might enjoy it. :-)

[science_spot]

Mar. 17, 2010 at 2:46 PM

I am sure we both would like that :)  I'll look for it at the library!

(Original Poster)